I don´t know why my USD 7 hotel room in the El Salvador border town of La Palma reminds me of Vincent Van Gogh but it does. Perhaps its the red tile floor and wooden beam ceiling in my tiny bedroom, or the homely patterned blankets on the tiny wooden bed. It cannot be the seat in my bedroom, as that is plastic garden furniture, and there are definitely no sunflowers to be found.
Or perhaps it is just all the artwork in the streets. The artwork that in fact made made me decide on the spur of the moment to stop off for a night in La Palmas as I drove past in the bus, before crossing over into Honduras. Artwork which again leaves me wondering why local councils back home don´t fork out on a few tins of paint and get local artists to brighten up dreary backwater Scottish towns with colourful murals, to attract the tourist trade and inject some money back into the local economy in places that might not otherwise be visited.
It certainly seems to be working in El Salvador, as La Palma profited by .....
USD 7 spent in a hotel
USD 1 spent in an internet cafe
USD 1.40 spent in a cake shop
.... a total of USD 11.40 from my wallet, in my visit to what was with hindsight, essentially a shitty, backwater town with some colourful paintings on its walls.
